Voyage of the Dead - Book One Sovereign Spirit Saga (6 page)

            Carl realized that he didn’t have time to open the ladder, so he made a split second decision to throw it over the fence and reached for the bolt cutters.  He raced to the chain link gate and shoved the bolt cutter at the pad lock.  For a moment he thought he was toast, but then his adrenaline kicked in and the cutters snapped the lock like a matchstick.  Carl got through the gate, closed and latched it again with almost two seconds to spare before the first zombie crashed into it.           

            He stood there face to face with the monster as its companions arrived and they shook the gate and fence fiercely.  Carl studied their behavior for at least twenty seconds before he raised his axe.  Using the pick end he systematically brained each of them in turn as they pressed their faces against the chain link.   After tying the latch on the gate he turned to retrieve his folding ladder.  He would need it to reach the first rungs of the ladder on the water tower.

Chapter 3: Networking Nightmares

            Mitch Franklin and Billy Allen left the meeting in the main lounge together and walked back towards the Internet Cafe.  They were both engineering students at Cal Tech and had wondered why their internet connections hadn’t worked that morning.  Now they knew that the Captain and Billy’s dad had cut-off the server until after the meeting.

            “I guess that was a good idea,” said Mitch.  “We would have freaked out if we saw that stuff on You Tube, you know?  Might have started a panic.”

            “So it’s okay to panic now?” asked Billy.

            “You heard your old man and the Captain.  We’re safe here.  Right?”

            “Yeah,” conceded Billy.  “I guess so.  Safer here than most places.  But everyone we know back home and at school are totally fucked!  I’ve gotta check my email and Facebook, man.  We could have missed something important.”

            “Relax, Billy.   Whatever was posted will still be there.”

            “Sure, but the people who posted it might not be,” Billy said.  “We might have missed our last chance to communicate with some of them.  They could have lost their internet connections, or be on the run, or dead, or a God-damned zombie by now.”

            “You think that’s really what’s happening to everyone?  Zombies?  No shit?!” exclaimed Mitch.

            “What else would you call them, dude? They eat people and those people turn into more of
them
.  I don’t care if they are dead or alive; they’re friggin zombies all right.”

            “Hey!  Wait up guys,” called Justin Wade from behind them.  Justin was one of Billy’s friends from back home in Malibu.  He was walking quickly down the passage with his girlfriend, Beth, who was hanging onto Justin’s arm like a scared kitten.  “Where are you two going?” he asked.

            “The Internet Café,” replied Mitch.  “We’re gonna surf the net for news and see if we can get hold of people back home.  Wanna help?”

            “Hell yes!” said Justin.  “This is some freaky shit, man.  The news is just crazy.  Maybe we’ll find more answers to what’s happening on-line.”  The young people entered the internet café and occupied four of the built-in terminals at the counter in front of the windows.  They each logged in and their own home pages came up on their screens. 

            Billy opened Firefox and clicked on Gmail.   It was taking longer than normal to load, so he opened Facebook in another tab then brought both windows up side by side on the flat screen.   The Gmail page came up with a message that it was unable to connect and would retry in 30 seconds.  The Facebook page was slow too, but it finally loaded and Billy leaned forward intently.

            “Lot’s of posts,” he said eagerly.  Then he started to read them.

Kelly Small
is alive.  I’m hiding in my dorm room.  Psychos are attacking people in the quad.  Can anyone help me?

Ben Maxwell
still alive 2, Kelly.  I’m going to fight my way from my dorm to my car.  I’ll stop and honk in front of your dorm. Come with me if you can get down there.

Kelly Small
will try!

           
Christine Flowers
wants 2 go 2!  Same dorm.  Please hurry!

Ben Maxwell
should be there in 10 minutes.

Kelly Small
is scared.  It’s been half an hour!  Where’s Ben?

           
Kelly Small 
Hello?  Christine? Anyone? Someone is pounding on the door! I’m scared.

Howard Small
Baby are you there?  I’m at the office. The phones are out.  Write back!

Howard Small
Stay there baby.  Hide.  Daddy will come get you.

Howard Small
Kelly!!  Daddy is coming for you right now.

Billy felt sick to his stomach.  This was worse than watching zombies attack strangers on TV.  Those were his friends at college trapped in a nightmare with little hope for survival. Nobody on campus had guns to defend themselves except for a few cops.  He doubted that Kelly would still be alive if her father was able to get there.  She had made no further posts, but a new thread caught his eye.

Amanda Steinbeck
is home alone in Malibu. The news is awful. No violence here yet. Phones are jammed, but cable internet is working.  Any local news?  Any advice?

Brad Thomas
is also home in Malibu. Lock your doors. Do your parents have a gun?  If so, get it.  Do you want me to drive over and get you?  Our house on top of the hill is a lot safer than your beach house. And I do have a gun.

Amanda Steinbeck
does not have a gun.  Doors are locked now.  Please come get me!

Brad Thomas
is coming soon!

Amanda Steinbeck
will be waiting!  Please hurry, I’m scared.

Shawn Smith
and Bruce want to meet you guys up at Brad’s place.  We have guns too, but it’s getting freaky here on PCH.  We’ve seen a zombie get hit by some cars. It’s still crawling around in the road.  Another one attacked a guy on a bike and now the biker is a zombie too. We’re going to shoot all of them before we leave.  Be careful on the road!  We’ll bring food, guns, ammo.  Ok with you Brad?

Brad Thomas
says bring it on!  This place is plenty big enough and it’s gated.  My dad’s in Europe.  We’ll have an Apocalypse party for as long as we can hold out.  Let’s roll!

Now that was more like it!  Billy knew all those guys.  He used to play D&D, paint ball and air soft war games with them during high school.  They would be good at killing zombies.  He decided to add his own comment to the thread.

Billy Allen
and a bunch of friendlies are on a ship off the coast of Mexico.  No infection aboard.  We can’t help you now, but eventually we should be coming past Malibu.  Hang in there gang. Hold the fort.  Remember to go for head shots! If you have to leave Brad’s house, be sure to leave a note telling us where to find you. Stay in contact as longs as you can.  Don’t lose hope.  My dad has a helicopter too. 

He had added the last line to give them more hope.  A minute after Billy posted that he got two replies.

Shawn Smith
Sweet!  A ship with a helicopter?  Fucking A dude!  See ya when ya get here.  And don’t waste time doing it.  We’ll kick zombie ass till then.  Later bro.

Amanda Steinbeck
is waiting for Brad to pick me up.  I’ll tell him what you said, Billy.  Damn you’re lucky to be there instead of here!  Do you really have a helicopter?  Do we really need guns? Do you think this will be over soon?  What should we do?

Billy thought about it for a few seconds.  What should he tell them?  He wanted to give them hope, but not false hope.  He wasn’t a hundred percent sure that his dad would take the ship to Malibu, although he would probably at least want to get some stuff from the house there.  But Billy couldn’t be sure he’d be allowed to use the helicopter to save his friends, or how long it would take to get there.  Either way, he knew he would try to save them, if he could, and give them hope until then.

Billy Allen
thinks you will need those guns.  Things won’t go back to normal any time soon.  We can hope the cops and army keep control, but you need to take care of yourselves for now.  If those zombies come after you guys, shoot them in the head.  I’ll try to make sure we take the ship to Malibu and I know where Brad lives. But it will be at least a week or two until we get there.  Until then we have satellite com until it gives out, so we can keep track of the news.  You need to get together as many of our friends as you can and take care of each other.  Justin and Beth are on the ship with me.  We will not forget you guys.  And yes we do have a helicopter.  Hang in there and good luck.

When he had posted that message, Billy felt better.  He turned to the others to see what they had learned.  Mitch was staring at a message on Facebook and looked sad.  Justin was surfing Google News headlines.  Beth had her face in her hands and seemed to be crying softly. 

            “What have you found so far?” asked Billy.

            “Nothing good,” said Mich.  He had come to Cal Tech from Oregon and had a whole different set of Facebook friends from home.  “One of my buddies is barricaded in his apartment in Portland.  He says the whole city is crawling with zombies.  Most of the rest are off-line.  A few others made posts earlier this morning, but they aren’t responding now.  The IM and email for my parents isn’t going through.  This just sucks.”

            “I think my parents are dead,” blurted Beth.  She lifted her tear streaked face and explained, “They sent me an email from the airport in Miami saying that their flight home was cancelled.  They said ‘things are crazy here’ and that they were going to find a hotel and then send another email.  But that was five hours ago!”  She burst into tears again and Justin reached over to hug her.

            “Take it easy baby,” he said.  “They might be fine.  Maybe they just don’t have internet access yet.”  Billy and Mitch exchanged glances and shook their heads sadly while Beth buried her face in Justin’s chest. 

            “I’m sorry, Beth,” said Billy.  “Justin’s right, they could be fine.  But it may be a while before they can contact you again.”

            “What about you, Billy?” asked Justin.  “Any news?”

            “Yeah, most of it bad, but some good too.  It’s fucked up at Cal Tech.  I think my friends Kelly, Christine and Ben are probably history by now.  A lot more kids are getting attacked there too from the sound of it.”  That made Mitch groan.  “But it doesn’t sound so bad back home in Malibu.  In fact, our friends Amanda, Brad and Shawn and his brother Bruce are all going to hold up at Brad’s place on Sweet Water Mesa.  They have guns and supplies.   I told them to get as many of our other friends to join up as soon as they can.  And I told them to hang on because we are coming to save them with a ship and a helicopter.”

            “Say what?!” exclaimed Mitch.

            “Sweet!” said Justin. “Those dudes can hold off zombies for weeks if they have enough ammo.”  Justin and Beth were also from Malibu and knew all of the kids who were going to Brad’s house.     “Shawn’s dad is a gun nut with a fucking arsenal at their house on PCH.  They’ll be loaded for bear.  Zombies won’t stand a chance against the
Fucking A Team
!”  That had been the name of their paint ball and air soft mock combat team.  Justin was actually better friends with Shawn than Billy was, because those two had decided go to community college and stay to surf in Malibu instead of going off to university.      

“I sure hope you’re right,” said Billy.